Treadwell "Very Interested" In The 20th CD

Remember yesterday when I described former state GOP Chairman Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell as “widely speculated” to be considering a run against U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, in 2008?

Roll Call (subscription only) got Treadwell on the phone and reports today thatÂ he is, in fact, “very interested” in running, although he cautioned: “This is not an announcement.”

Treadwell, an independently wealthy former Essex County GOP chairman, now owns a home in Lake Placid (one of several) and has strong ties in the Northern part of the district. He has been traveling the 20th and talking to local Republican leaders and also making trips to Washington, D.C. (he’s a National GOP committeeman) to meet with operatives and party leaders.

Treadwell is a longtime friend and financial supporter of former Gov. George Pataki, but he told Roll Call he will soon be giving up his post as head of the ex-governor’s 21st Century Freedom PAC.

Support for Treadwell in the 20th is not a foregone conclusion, in part due to his ties to Pataki as well as the fact that he presided over the state GOP in 2004 when the party’s U.S. Senate candidate, former state Assemblyman Howard Mills, handed U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, an historic re-election victory in which he swept all but one of the state’s 62 counties and garnered 71 percent of the vote.

A number of other people have been mentioned as possible Republican opponents to Gillibrand in 2008.

Assemblyman Roy McDonald, of Saratoga County, for example, who wanted to run for the seat in 1998 after then-U.S. Rep. Gerald Solomon announced his retirement. McDonald was shunted aside by then-state GOP Chairman Bill Powers and his allies, who wanted to see the seat go to (now former U.S. Rep.) John Sweeney.

From Roll Call:

“The [Republican] party is a disaster in New York state,” McDonald said, comparing the state GOP with the Whig Party of the 19th century. “Lots of people are to blame for it and (Treadwell’s) going to fall into that category, too.â€

Treadwell defended his efforts at the helm of the state party.

“Iâ€™m proud of my tenure as state chairman,â€ Treadwell said, pointing to successes such as Michael Bloombergâ€™s election as mayor of New York in 2001 and Patakiâ€™s overwhelming re-election in 2002. However, Treadwell, who stepped aside with 10 months left in his second two-year term, did admit that 2004 was â€œa more difficult year.”

Others potential GOP candidatesÂ include: Former Assembly Minority Leader/gubernatorial candidate John Faso (although he told Roll Call a 20th CD run “is not something that’s on my plate right now”); Saratoga County District Attorney Jim Murphy; Richard Wager, son of the former publisher of the Poughkeepsie Journal; state Sen. Betty Little, whose spokeman told Roll Call she has no immediate plans to run.

As for Gillibrand, she’s anticipating a “hard-fought” re-election campaign in the 20th, where the GOP has a more than 80,000-voter enrollment edge, and already has two fundraisers planned this month, her spokeswoman Rachel McEneny told Roll Call.

“The Congressional honeymoon period probably ended day she was sworn in,” McEneny said. McEneny added: “Iâ€™ve only heard very nice things about [Treadwell] as a personâ€ but noted that his tenure at the helm of the state party raised questions about his ability to deliver “on the pressing needs of upstate New York.”